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THE FIRST BOOK 
OF PHOTOGRAPHY 





In order to prevent any motion of the camera during exposure, hold it 
firmly against the body with the left hand, stop breathing, and release 
the shutter with the disengaged right hand 






THE FIRST BOOK 
of PHOTOGRAPHY 

A Primer of Theory and Practice 
for the Beginner 


By 

C. H. CLAUDY 

\\ 

AUTHOR OF 

Press Photography , The Kodak Baby Book , 
Motoring with a Kodak, Getting 
Betults in Photography , etc. 


NEW AND REVISED EDITION 


/ i 



NEW YORK 

ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. 
1918 




McBride, nast & co. 


Revised Edition 
Copyright, 1919 

By ROBERT M. McBRIDE & CO. 


PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



Published April, 1912 

Revised Edition 
January, 1919 


J'-.N 22 191B ' 

©Cl. A 5 121 2 3 



•u $ V 








TO 

CHARLES M. LEWIS 

COMRADE 

AND WISE GUIDE OF EARLY PHOTOGRAPHIC DAYS 
THIS LITTLE BOOK 
IS 


AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 


s 


CONTENTS 


PAGE) 

Preface.11 

The Camera.17 

Action of Light—Films and Plates 
—Buying the Camera—The First 
Step—Loading Up—The Numbers 
—Taking out Exposed Film—Care 
of the Film — Capacity of Instru¬ 
ment—Simple Rules—The Instruc¬ 
tion Book 

Exposure.41 

Focusing—Lens Terms—The Meat 
of It—The First Attempts—Posi¬ 
tion—Making the Exposure—The 
Autographic Feature—S o m e Ex¬ 
posure Hints—Indoors Portrait- 

Distortion —Capacity — Brightness 
of Light—Time Exposures—Com¬ 
parisons 

Development.72 

Theory of Development—Develop¬ 
ment—Red Light—Tanks—Tank 
Practice-^-Fixing—Judging Nega¬ 
tives—A Good Negative—Tests 

Printing.99 

Methods—Gas-light Papers—Prin¬ 
ciples — Cautions —V arieties — Sur¬ 
faces—Test Prints 

In Conclusion.114 


V. 


THE ILLUSTRATIONS 


The Proper Wat to Hold a Hand 
Camera for a Snapshot Frontispiece 

FACING 

PAGE 

Distortion of Vertical Lines Re¬ 
sulting from Tipping the Cam¬ 
era When Making the Expo¬ 
sure • • , • • • . 57 


The Harsh, Black-and-White Print 
Resulting from an Under Ex¬ 
posed Negative; and the Flat, 
Dull Print from a Negative 
That Has Been Over Exposed . 69 


A Road in the Woods—a Combina¬ 
tion of Sunlight and Shadow 
Which Demands a Tripod and 
Time Exposure . . . .97 




PREFACE 


There are many ways to write 
a book—even such a little book as 
this. But of the many, the only 
two ways which particularly con¬ 
cerned the author in making a 
choice were these—the personal, in¬ 
timate, direct way, which calls a 
camera a camera, a Kodak a Kodak, 
Ansco films by their own name, re- 
fers openly to Cyko and to Yelox, 
to the Graflex or the Cirkut cam¬ 
eras by their cognomens—or the 
impersonal, indirect and formal 
method which calls all instruments 
for the making of pictures, cameras, 

11 




PREFACE 


and refers always to sensitive ma¬ 
terial and developing paper, re¬ 
volving cameras and mirror boxes, 
with never a suspicion of a trade 
name. 

If you choose the first, you con¬ 
vey more information and are sus¬ 
pected of advertising! If you 
choose the second, you are at once 
ethical and indefinite. And as a 
primer should certainly be definite, 
no matter what else it is, the author, 
after careful consideration of the 
matter and with the full approval 
of his publishers, decided to call 
things by their right names. 

It is the earnest hope of the 
author that no manufacturer, or 
reader of these pages, will read into 

12 


PREFACE 


them either invidious comparison or 
praise of one make at the expense of 
the other, for neither offense, if com¬ 
mitted, is intentional. Kodaks and 
Anscos, Velox and Cyko, Graflexes 
and other instruments are named 
by name for the sake of clarity and 
not comparison. 

Wherever the necessity appeared, 
photographic terms have been ex¬ 
plained and defined. While this 
little book is a photographic primer, 
it is not intended for children, and 
the reader is accused of having gen¬ 
eral intelligence which might be of¬ 
fended with primer-like facts ex¬ 
plained in true primer language. 

The author desires to express his 
thanks for the kindly permission of 

13 


PREFACE 


the Photographic Times to use, as 
part of this book, material which 
appeared in its columns from time 
to time under the general title, 
“ From the Very Beginning.” 

C. H. Claudy 

Washington, 

February 15, 1912 


14 


PREFACE TO SECOND 
EDITION 


This little volume has made a 
place for itself large enough for its 
publishers to think a revised edition a 
necessity. In bringing it up-to-date, 
no essential change has been made in 
its plan or scope; it has been care¬ 
fully edited for such alterations as 
the progress of the art of photog¬ 
raphy requires, and considerable new 
matter has been added, amplifying 
and, it is hoped, making plainer the 
simple foundations of the photo¬ 
graphic craft. 

But the character of the little story 
has been left as much as possible as 
it was,—the book is still distinctly a 
primer, if not in words, at least in 

15 


PREFACE 

ideas, of one syllable, designed for 
the beginner, the reader who doesn’t 
know which end of a camera to point 
at the scene he would record. If it 
has any value, it is in its simplicity— 
what place it has made for itself in 
the hands of the public which buys it 
was won because it disregards all by¬ 
paths, all ramifications, all excep¬ 
tions, alternatives, and “stunts” and 
tells only of the essential funda¬ 
mentals. 

The author ventures to hope that 
the revised text but carries out this 
idea a little further and a little better, 
and that the new matter in no way 
adds to the complexity of a subject 
which has here been treated as a sim¬ 
ple one. 

C. H. Claudy 

September 12, 1918 . 


16 


THE FIRST BOOK OF 
PHOTOGRAPHY 

THE CAMERA 

A camera, of any kind, is noth¬ 
ing more nor less than a little cham¬ 
ber from which all light can be 
excluded. The only light ever ad¬ 
mitted in picture-making comes 
through one or more pieces of glass 
called the lens. There is a means, 
both for letting in the light and for 
keeping it out of the lens and the 
dark little chamber, called a shutter. 
At the opposite end of the camera 
from the lens is some means for 

17 


THE FIRST BOOK 


holding a piece of sensitive material 
—material sensitive in a chemical 
way to the action of light. 

Action of Light 

When you expose your skin to 
bright sunlight for any length of 
time, it first burns red, then tans. 
Sunlight turns green apples red. 
Sunlight, too much of it, turns 
green grass brown. All this is 
chemical action due to the action of 
sunlight. The sensitive material in 
the camera is a million times, and 
more, sensitive to light than skin or 
fruit. It is so sensitive that the 
least touch of white sunlight, even 
for a tiny fraction of a second, af¬ 
fects it. The effect does not show 

18 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


to the eye, but is made visible when 
the sensitive material is submitted 
to the action of certain chemicals, 
of which more later. 

Films and Plates 

The sensitive material is in one 
of two forms. It is either coated 
upon glass, when it is called a dry 
plate, or it is coated upon a celluloid¬ 
like substance when it is called film. 
There is always a hot discussion go¬ 
ing on as to which is the better to use, 
films or plates, but for the beginner, 
the man who wants his camera for 
recreation only, in its simplest form, 
the films have the most recommen¬ 
dations. 

These are as follows: Thev are 
very light. A number can be car- 

19 


THE FIRST BOOK 


ried in the pocket. They can be put 
into the camera in daylight. Plates 
must be loaded into special pieces of 
apparatus called plate-holders, in a 
dark room, with only a weak red 
light by which to see. Roll films— 
films put up in a roll, as distin¬ 
guished from those put up flat, 
when they are called film-packs— 
can be developed, that is, treated 
with chemicals, so that the action 
of the light through the lens be¬ 
comes visible, in what is known as 
a tank, or a developing machine. 
This operation is mechanical and 
automatic, and requires only the 
following of instructions to get just 
as good results as the expert can 
obtain. Plates, and films from film 

26 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


packs, while they also can be develop¬ 
ed in a tank or machine, must be 
taken out of the plate-holders and 
put in the tank or machine in the dark 
room before referred to. There are 
other advantages and disadvantages, 
but these will suffice. 

Buying the Camera 

Now, the first thing to do is to 
buy the camera. You will go to a 
supply store and will be shown a 
bewildering array of cameras, all of 
which will look about alike, but 
which will vaiy greatly as to price. 
You will see a library of catalogues, 
telling you about at least a hundred 
different kinds of cameras, at a 
hundred different prices, from one 

21 


THE FIRST BOOK 

dollar to three hundred dollars. 
After you have looked a little, you 
will distinguish two broad divisions 
in the smaller or hand cameras. 
One kind looks like a black box 
with a few holes in it, the other 
opens and shows shining metal work, 
a lens, a red or black leather bellows, 
a rubber tube, and so on. These are 
the more expensive hand instruments, 
of which the best-known are the 
Folding Pocket Kodaks. Others 
are the Anscos and the Premos. 
If you are wise, you will buy an 
inexpensive film camera, to start 
with, either of the box type, and 
technically known as “ fixed focus,” 
or of the folding variety which slips 
in the pocket. The little Brownie 

22 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


cameras selling for two dollars up are 
the best-known cheap box cameras. 

Fixed Focus 

“Fixed focus” is a term meaning 
that the lens is always stationary 
with relation to the film or plate, and 

requires no focussing (adjusting) at 
any time. 

The variable focus instruments— 
and the majority of the pocket or 
folding instruments are so made- 
pro vide an adjustment by which the 
distance from lens to film can be 
varied. As there are a great many 
little things to learn all at once 
about making a picture, the less 
complications you have at the out¬ 
set, the quicker you will learn. As 

23 


THE FIRST BOOK 


this varying the distance between 
lens and film, called focussing, is a 
somewhat large subject, and as the 
fixed focus camera avoids it, those 
who get a fixed focus camera with 
which to begin, will have the less 
to learn. 

For scientific and impossible-to- 
get-over reasons, all fixed focus 
cameras are for comparatively small¬ 
sized plates or films. They are 
rarely 4x5 inches, more commonly 
2^4 x 3 y^y a good size with which to 
begin. The smaller size has the ad¬ 
ded advantage of making the sup¬ 
plies, the rolls of film, cost less. Fixed 
focus cameras can be bought from 
two dollars up—and the films, in 
rolls containing material for two, six, 

24 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


eight, ten or twelve pictures, cost 
from fifteen cents up per roll. 

Capacity 

The “capacity” of any variety 
of camera refers to the range of work 
it can do. There is no such thing as 
a truly universal instrument, al¬ 
though some approach that ideal very 
closely. And many beginners, with 
the idea that they are buying not only 
for the immediate present but for the 
future, invest in an expensive instru¬ 
ment because the salesman is able to 
show them how it can be made to do 

so many varieties of work, whereas 
the less expensive instruments are 
more restricted in scope. 

25 


THE FIRST BOOK 

It does not seem a wise thing for 
the beginner to do, however, any 
more than it is wise to buy a thou¬ 
sand dollar piano for a six-year-old 
to learn scales upon, or put a five- 
hundred dollar microscope in the 
hands of a high school student that 
he may dissect a rose! 

The universal instrument is heav¬ 
ier, clumsier, more complicated than 
that designed for only a few photo¬ 
graphic problems. Who would possess 
an instrument which may, by turns, 
take the place of a snapshot Kodak, 
a studio portrait camera, an enlarg¬ 
ing camera, a copying camera, a 
view-box and a lantern slide camera, 
must carry weight, concern himself 

26 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 
with many “movements” and adjust¬ 
ments, and include in his purchase 
lenses both numerous and expensive. 

The advice therefore, is strongly 
presented—unless your pocketbook 
is of so desirable a size that it matters 
little to you what you take from it, 
make your initial purchase of instru¬ 
ment from the low two figure or one 
figure ranks, and learn first to make 
landscape and street scenes—later 
you will know what you really want 
in a camera, and can then, if you de¬ 
sire, sell your beginner’s tool and in¬ 
vest more heavily, but with a solid 
foundation of knowledge of what you 
want behind your choice. 


27 


THE FIRST BOOK 


The First Step 

But whether you buy an expen¬ 
sive instrument, a fixed focus box 
camera or a Folding Pocket Kodak 
the first thing you should do is to sit 
down at your leisure and examine the 
thing carefully. If you have a box 
Kodak, in front, in the center, you 
will find a hole. Behind something in 
this hole is the lens. The something is 

the shutter. Not knowing the par¬ 
ticular variety you have bought, I 
cannot tell you exactly how to op¬ 
erate your shutter, but it is prob¬ 
ably by means of a little projecting 
lever on top or at the side of the 

28 


THE FIRST BOOK 

box camera, or a little lever or a 
rubber bulb in the Folding Kodak. 
Find out from the instruction hook, 
and work it. Work it a lot. See 
just how much muscular force you 
need to press it to make the shutter 
wink back and forth across the lens. 
Practice doing it with the camera 
held about in the pit of the stomach 
by the left hand, and try to hold it 
steady. It is very essential for the 
success of any picture taken when 
the camera is held in the hand, that 
it, the camera, be held steadily, and 
with as little jar and shake as pos¬ 
sible. 

Loading Up 

The next thing is to learn how 
to put the roll of film in the camera. 

29 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

Right here, spend your thirty cents 
and spoil a roll of film to know just 
how it is made. First break the 
seal of paper which surrounds it. 
Then unwind it completely. This 
unwinding will utterly ruin the film 
for picture purposes, but it will 
save some future exposures by your 
knowing what it is like. You will 
note that the film, a milky, yellow¬ 
ish strip of celluloid, is shiny on 
one side and dull on the other. The 
shiny side is next the protecting 
strip of red and black paper, or black 
paper, or next two thicknesses of 
paper, one red, the other black, ac¬ 
cording to what make of film you buy. 
The protecting paper or papers ex¬ 
tends beyond the film on either end. 

30 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


You will see that only the first end 
of the film is fastened down and that 
the last end is loose, but provided 
with a paster ready to fasten. You 
will note numbers on the back of 
the protecting paper, and before 
the first of these is a little printed 
hand. Now roll up the film again, 
and insert in the camera according 
to the directions for the particular 
style of instrument you have. As 
you know that when unrolled the 
spool presents a film on one side 
and a strip of paper on the other, 
and you presumably have guessed 
that it is the film and not the paper 
on which the picture is made, you 
can appreciate the importance of 
getting the spool into the camera 


31 


I 


THE FIRST BOOK 

right side up, or so that the film will 
be turned inwards and towards the 
lens. 

The Numbers 

Practice putting the film in, 
winding it through, watching the 
little numbers through the tiny ruby 
window you will find in the rear of 
your Kodak, until you are thor¬ 
oughly familiar with the whole op¬ 
eration, and know just how the 
numbers look through the red glass. 
The purpose of these numbers is 
to tell you how far to wind the film 
between each picture. After one 
picture is made, another picture 
must not be made on that same 
strip of film, otherwise there would 
be what is called a double exposure, 

32 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


and the result would be only blur 
and confusion. So the film is wound 
off its original spool on to the other, 
or take-up spool, and the amount 
of winding to be done is shown by 
the periodical appearance of the lit¬ 
tle black or white numbers opposite 
the little ruby window. Also, they 
indicate the number of pictures al¬ 
ready made and consequently the 
number which can yet be made upon 
the spool of film. 

Taking Out Exposed Film 
In making pictures in the field* 
after the last number has been 
wound past the window, keep on 
turning the key until it will turn 
no more, or until enough turns have 
been made to insure all the protect- 


33 


THE FIRST BOOK 


ing paper having been wound off 
the original spool and on to the 
take-up spool. Then, and not un¬ 
til then—except in the trials at 
home with the spoiled film—remove 
the back of the camera, or open the 
door, or whatever it is you do on 
your particular camera to get to 
the spools, and take out the wound¬ 
up film. On the end of the pro¬ 
tecting paper there is a loose piece 
of gummed paper. Use this to 
stick the flap of the roll to itself, 
so it will not unwind, and put the 
whole away from the light, in a 
pocket or box. But don't try to 
make pictures on the film you have 
unrolled for examination . It is 
ruined. Throw it away. 

34 



G 

OF PHOTOGRAPHY 
Care of Film 

Now, I want to make it ex¬ 
ceedingly emphatic, and must re¬ 
peat this for the sake of emphasis— 
roll film, in common with other 
sensitive photographic products, will 
not stand light. If the tiny flash 
of light in your Kodak, made 
through the little lens, by snapping 
the marvelously quick shutter mech¬ 
anism back and forth, is enough to 
make a picture, you can realize that 
the same amount of light in the 
wrong place will spoil it. You must 
not put your films in the camera 
in bright sunlight; get in the shade; 
in a house is better. You must not 
let spools of film, exposed or fresh, 
lie around uncovered. Roll film is 


35 


THE FIRST BOOK 


carefully made and well protected 
against ordinary handling, but it 
isn’t fool-proof, and light has a way 
of leaking and seeping in and 
around where it is least expected. 
If you are careful in loading and 
unloading, if you take care and give 
the film a chance, there is no reason 
why you shouldn’t make just as 
good pictures within the capabilities 
of your instrument as any one else 
with larger and finer machines. All 
too often, the beginner blames the 
film, the Kodak, the man who does 
the developing and printing, every¬ 
thing but himself, when it is only 
and solely his own fault for failing 
to mind the simple rules which the 
nature of the things requires, or at- 


36 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


tempting to do some photographic 
impossibility, such as making snap¬ 
shots indoors with the little box 
camera, or trying what is called a 
time exposure, while holding the 
camera in the hand. 

Capacity of Instrument 

The beginner, who is the owner 
of a small box or fixed focus camera, 
should remember that while his in¬ 
strument may be the very best of 
its kind, it is not suited for all 
kinds of photographic work. Any 
one who took a target pistol to hunt 
elephants with would be considered 
a fool. The man who attempted 
to paint a house with a brush used 
by miniature painters would be an 

37 


THE FIRST BOOK 


idiot, and, in the same way, the man 
who tries to do speed work with a 
fixed focus Kodak, or to get artis¬ 
tically broad effects in portrait light¬ 
ing without a proper equipment, is 
inclined to the foolish side of life. 
Within its capabilities, the fixed 
focus instrument is an admirable 
one, and is, par excellence, the cam¬ 
era with which to learn, but it will 
not do everything in photography, 
any more than one swallow will 
make a summer. 

Simple Rules 

The rules are very simple and 
not at all exacting in the matter of 
difficulty, but breaking them means 
no pictures. For this reason, I am 


38 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


making it as strong as I know how 
—waste a roll of film to find out 
what it is like—learn all you can 
about using your camera before you 
begin to make pictures—keep your 
films from the light in loading and 
unloading—and remember that the 
directions given here, and those 
which come with the camera, are 
not written because those who write 
like to have fun with you, but be¬ 
cause they want you to take good 
pictures. It is of financial interest 
to the manufacturers to have you 
do well—it is of all kinds of interest 
to the publishers and to me to have 
this little book read and appreciated. 
Therefore, you will do well, until 
you are photographically grown up, 

39 



THE FIRST BOOK 


to follow literally the rules here 
laid down, and incorporated in your 
book of instructions, whether you 
believe in the necessity of them or 
not. 

% 

The Instruction Booh 

Whether you buy a Kodak, 
folding or fixed focus form, an 
Ansco, a Premo, or some other 

i 

variety of camera, you will find 
with it a little instruction booklet, 
showing in detail just exactly how 
the instrument is to be operated. 
In the Kodak booklets you will 
find the most minute details, pic¬ 
tured as well as explained. At the 
risk of becoming tiresome, I should 
like to give utterance to my con- 

40 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

viction that these instruction books 
have a purpose—that purpose being 
to be read! The advice may seem 
superfluous, yet there are so many 
questions asked the man who sells 
the Kodaks, which are fully an¬ 
swered in the instruction books, that 
very evidently many purchasers 
think these little manuals are pieces 
of advertising literature and throw 
them away. Neither this primer 
nor any other book can take their 
place—they are the individual in¬ 
struction in your particular choice 
of instrument, and are made to be 
read and re-read and understood. 
They are perfectly simple, but they 
must be understood. Using a tele¬ 
phone is a perfectly simple opera- 

41 




THE FIRST BOOK 

tion, but you wouldn’t expect a 
Hottentot to know how without 
being told. So is making pictures 
with the hand camera' perfectly 
simple—so is loading and unloading 
perfectly simple—but you can’t ex¬ 
pect to know how without the very 
simple and elementary instructions 
which are given you free with your 
purchase. 

Your dealer can tell you a hun¬ 
dred stories of men and women who 
take a picture and immediately 
open the camera, expecting a 
mounted print to drop out, and who 
are resentful when told they have 
ruined their film. I once saw a 
man bring in a loosely wrapped 
package of newspaper and pass 

42 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

it across the counter to the 
dealer with the request to “ make 
this into pictures. I have been 
very careful to keep it from 
the light.” “ This ” was a mass 
of unrolled film, “ protected from 
the light by a fold of newspaper. 
The man didn’t know, hadn’t read 
his little book, was trying to do 
without knowing how. 

Be able to blame some one, if 
things go wrong and you know 
you have followed instructions. 
Picture taking sounds a lot more 
difficult in the telling than it is in 
the doing—yet one can go as far 
as one wills, and never reach the 
end of photographic knowledge. 


- > > «. 


43 



4 THE FIRST BOOK 


EXPOSURE 

The problem which confronts the 
novice in photography at the very 
beginning is that of, “ What ex¬ 
posure shall I give?” And it is 
not a problem the answer to which 
lies ready to hand, waiting only for 
some one to come along and pick 
it up. For exposures depend on a 
great many different things, the 
number of which alone is enough 
to discourage the seeker after 
photographic skill. Among the 
factors on the proper combination 
of which correct exposure depends, 
may be mentioned the following: 

44 


THE FIRST BOOK 


time of year, time of day, speed of 
film, speed of shutter, speed of lens 
(otherwise its “relative opening”), 
color of subject, distance of subject 
from the camera, kind and color of 
light, state of air—whether clear or 
murky, kind and number of clouds, 
and so on. 

On the other hand, the beginner 
is not turned loose in a wilderness 
of things he does not understand 
and told to go ahead! There have 
been deduced certain rules, arbi¬ 
trary rather than exact, and until 
experience takes the place of book¬ 
learning in the work, the beginner 
can do no better than follow these. 


45 



THE FIRST BOOK 


Focussing 

The lens in the camera made of 
two or more pieces of glass, forms an 
image of the objects to be photo¬ 
graphed. This image is not formed 
anywhere but at a certain definite 
distance behind the lens. That dis¬ 
tance varies slightly, but whatever it 
is, the lens is said to be “in focus” 
when that image is sharp and clear. 
Therefore, before a lens can form an 
image of an object on the sensitive 
material (plate or film) it must be 
focussed. In the fixed focus cam¬ 
eras, this is done by the manufac¬ 
turer. In the scale focussing in¬ 
struments, such as the Folding 
Pocket Kodaks of the larger sizes. 


46 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

it must be done by the operator, 
according to a scale. This focus, 
or distance from the lens to the 
plate, differs with different lenses, 
and with the same lens as the dis¬ 
tance between camera and object 
is greater or smaller. A lens has, 
therefore, a great many different 
foci, but one of all of these is re¬ 
ferred to as “ the focus ” of the 
lens—it is the distance between the 
lens and the sensitive material when 
the lens is so focussed or set as to 
give a sharp picture of distant 
objects. 

Lens Terms 

Photographically, a lens has 
two dimensions. It has a focal 


47 



THE FIRST BOOK 


length or focus and it has a “ rela¬ 
tive opening." Focus, or focal 
length, has just been described; the 
relative opening is, roughly speak¬ 
ing, the size of the lens across its 
face in proportion to this focal 
length. This relation is expressed 
as a fraction with the letter “ F ” 
standing for focal length. A lens, 
therefore, is said to “ work ” at F/8 
or F/16 or some other combination, 
meaning that the diameter of the 
lens is one-eighth or one-sixteenth 
of its focal length. It is important 
for you to know what the focal 
length and working aperture of 
your lens are, and the man from 
whom you buy it should be able 
to tell you. If he cannot, write to 


48 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

the manufacturer of the camera 
and ascertain in that way, or, with 
a small foot-rule, measure for your¬ 
self the diameter of the lens and 
its distance from the film when the 
camera is focussed on some distant 
object, and compute it from the fig¬ 
ures thus obtained. They will not be 
exact, but sufficiently accurate for 
your purpose. On all “fixed 
focus” cameras — cameras costing 
five dollars or less, such as the 
Brownies—the lens is seldom larger 
than F/16. On more expensive 
cameras, such as the Pocket Kodaks, 
with lenses in metal shutters, a 
scale, called a diaphragm scale, will 
usually supply the information. 
Unfortunately, however, there exists 


49 



THE FIRST BOOK 


another system of marking lenses in' 
this country, called the Uniform 
System, and all “ stop ” or aper¬ 
ture markings not preceded with the 
letter F are usually of that system. 
They are, therefore, given below 
with their equivalents. 

f/8 f/11 f/16 f/22 

u. s. 4 u. s. 8 u. s. 16 u. s. 32 

f/32 f/45 f/64 

u. s. 64 u. s. 128 u. s. 256 

The Meat of It 

Now we will get to the meat 
of all this. Never try to take snap¬ 
shots with your camera except when 
the sun is shining brightly, if your 
lens is any smaller than F/16. There 
may be some exceptions to this rule; 


50 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


in fact, there are several, but at pres¬ 
ent we are dealing with essentials and 
not with exceptions. Get that firmly 
fixed in your mind—no snapshots ex¬ 
cept in bright sunlight, with a fixed 
focus camera with lens no faster than 
F/16, and you will have made the 
first step towards a success in learn¬ 
ing to make exposures. 

It should, of course, be under¬ 
stood that sunlight is to be shining 
on the object to be (C taken ” It is 
perfectly possible to be indoors and 
take a snapshot of something out- 
of-doors in bright sunlight; it is 
impossible to stand in bright sun¬ 
light and take a picture, a snap¬ 
shot, of something or somebody in 
a house. 


51 


THE FIRST BOOK 


The First Attempts 

They are best made on some¬ 
thing which will not bother you 
with motion—a house, statue, tree. 
Load the camera, Kodak, Premo, 
Ansco—whatever you have, in the 
house. If the shutter is of the type 
which must be set, see that it is 
set. See that the film is in position 
with the figure “ 1 ” behind the 
red glass window. 

Position 

Take a position in front of 
what you wish to photograph. See 
that the sun is behind you, or to 
the right or left of you—not in 


52 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


front of you. Photographing to¬ 
ward the sun is a feat for the ex¬ 
pert, never for the beginner, as it 
involves shading the lens, a knowl¬ 
edge of shadow work and a 
full understanding of “ halation ” 
(spreading of light) and “local re¬ 
duction” (after-manipulation of 
the negative) and other strange and 
interesting things which you will 
learn more about when the primer 
days are over. 

Making the Exposure 

Hold the camera in the left 
hand, about the level of the stomach. 
Let it rest in that hand as on a 
table. Steady it with the right hand 
if you wish, but leave a finger for 
the moving of the lever or the press- 


53 


THE FIRST BOOK 

ing of the bulb, which makes the 
exposure. 

Examine the image in the little 
“ finder ” or miniature camera with 
which all hand cameras are equipped, 
and see that what you want to 
“ take ” is in the middle of that 
miniature picture-frame. Then, 
stand still, stop breathing , press the 
bulb or throw the lever over and 
the deed is done. Remember, this 
is not an affair of strength. You 
want to do it gently. It is not the 
speed with which you throw the 
lever which causes the speed of the 
shutter. Too much effort on your 
part and you jar the camera and 
blur the picture. Be gentle, but 
sure. 


54 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


The Autographic Feature 

If there were less exceptions to 
photographic rules, and less numbers 
of ways to do the same thing, the art 
would be easier to learn! 

A rather recent addition to the 
weapons of the photographer is a case 
in point. It is known as the “auto¬ 
graphic” feature of roll film for 
Kodaks, and must be described here, 
for the sake of clarity, even though it 
may be ignored in the first experi¬ 
ments in picture making. 

Besides the little ruby window 
through which you look to see the 
numbers of the film as you wind it, 
you will find on the back of many 
Kodaks a narrow slot, covered with 

55 


THE FIRST BOOK 


a little door, and held in a depression 
nearby, a little metal stylus. 

The stylus is used to write on the 
red paper which can be seen when the 
little spring door is opened. Any¬ 
thing may be written, the title of the 
picture just made, the exposure 
given, the locality, the date—any¬ 
thing you wish to have continually 
preserved on the film itself. When 
the film is developed and becomes a 
negative (as described later) the 
writing done with the stylus on the 
paper appears in black letters on the 
edge of the film. 

A few pages back reference was 
made to the colors of papers behind 
and protecting the sensitive film. In 
non-autographic film this paper is 

56 

























































The distorted slant of the buildings is due to not 
holding the camera level. It has been pointed up 
in the attempt to bring in the tops of the houses 













OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

either red and black, or just plain 
black. Autographic film is protected 
with two strips of paper, the outer 
one rather thinner than the paper in 
non-autographic films and red in 
color, the inner one black on one side 
and grey on the other. The inner 
piece looks much like the familiar 
carbon paper as used by typists, and 
as a matter of fact this paper is of 
that character. 

Neither the red paper nor the black 
paper alone is light proof, but both 
together are entirely so. When the 
operator writes on the red paper with 
the stylus, the two papers are pressed 
intimately in contact. The pressure 
makes the black surface of the black 
paper stick to the red paper (as you 

57 


THE FIRST BOOK 


can demonstrate for yourself with 
your spoiled roll of film). The result 
is that wherever the letters are im¬ 
pressed with the stylus, the papers 
are no longer entirely light proof. If, 
now the writing be exposed to light, 
that light will strike through the 
writing—because the papers are here 
not light proof—and affect the sen¬ 
sitive surface of the film. That effect 
will be made visible when the film is 
developed, and thus the film will have, 
as a part of itself, the name, title, or 
data you wrote upon it at the time. 

The little spring door in the Kodak 
is so located that this writing will 
come just beyond the outside limits 
of the picture, and so that, when the 
long strip of film is cut apart into its 

56 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


several “negatives’' or pictures, the 
writing will be on the little margin of 
clear film, at the bottom (close to the 
foreground) of pictures made with 
the Kodak held vertical, or at the left 
of a horizontal picture which is looked 
at with the shiny side (back of the 
film) next the eyes. 

To get the writing clear and dis¬ 
tinct, it is necessary to hold the stylus 
as nearly upright as may be conven¬ 
ient and to press evenly on both up 
and down strokes. The instrument 
should not be held in the sunlight 
while the writing is being done—in¬ 
deed it should not be held in sunlight 
at all. But after the writing is fin¬ 
ished, the camera should be held so 
that the light from the sky falls upon 

59 



THE FIRST BOOK 

it for from two to ten seconds—the 
former if the sky is bright and cloud¬ 
less, the latter if dull and overcast. 
Indoors and close to a window the ex¬ 
posures will vary from five to fifteen 
seconds, according to the brilliancy 
of the light. If you desire to impress 
the writing-image on the film with 
artificial light, hold the open spring 
door to within a couple of inches of 
the bulb and give from half to a 
whole minute exposure. Then close 
the door. 

There is another use for the auto¬ 
graphic feature which is very con¬ 
venient for those who have some one 
else “do the rest” in photography. 
After the last picture in the roll has 
been made, instead of winding the 

60 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


film off on the take up spool as rapid¬ 
ly as possible, wind it carefully until 
a letter (A) appears under the win¬ 
dow. Then open the spring door and 
write your name and address. When 
the film goes to the finisher he will 
have a record as to whom it belongs 
which can’t get away from it. 

It is important in using the auto¬ 
graphic feature to write with a steady, 
even pressure, to hold the stylus up¬ 
right, to expose properly to light, and 
to close and lock the door before 
winding the film for the next ex¬ 
posure. This is important because 
opening the door operates a safety 
spring border which clamps papers 
and film together, and to pull the 
paper and film along under the 

61 


THE FIRST BOOK 


spring catch will result in disaster. 

The whole matter is presented here, 
not that the beginner need bother 
either to use autographic films for 
first experiments, or if he does use 
them, to write upon them, but because 
of the necessity of getting a certain 
fixed procedure as to exposure and 
film winding thoroughly into mind, 
so that it becomes a habit. With old 
style cameras, it might be expressed 
“focus, set shutter, expose, wind 
film.” With the autographic feature 
in mind, the formula will read, “focus, 
set shutter, expose, write, close door, 
wind film. ,, And unless you make it 
a habit to do the writing and close the 
door and wind the film as soon as the 
picture is made , you will inevitably at 

62 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

times make a double exposure, or do 
the writing for one film on the next 
one or, forgetting to close the little 
door, tear or scratch the film. 


Some Exposure Hints 

While it is as absolutely im¬ 
possible for one person to tell an¬ 
other what exposure to give, with¬ 
out being present and seeing all 
the conditions, as it is for one per¬ 
son to order a dinner for another 
without knowing his appetite and 
capacity, there are some hints which 
can be followed in many cases with 
profit, to the beginner at least. 

Under exposure is more to be 
feared than over exposure . In case 

63 


THE FIRST BOOK 

of doubt between two exposures, 
give the longer one, always. 

When the surroundings are un¬ 
usually bright, such as at the sea¬ 
shore, where sky, sand and sea re¬ 
flect great quantities of light, or on 
shipboard, where the same condi¬ 
tions obtain, make the opening in 
the lens smaller than for the same 
snapshots inland. If you have been 
getting good results in sunlight on 
terra firma, with what your shutter 
calls 1-100th second and the largest 
“ stop ” or opening in your shutter, 
which is, with a Pocket Kodak, U. 
S. 4 or F/8—use stop 16 (F or U. 
S.—since both are the same on this 
one number) when at sea or at the 
seashore in bright sunlight. 

64 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


The same caution should be ob¬ 
served when making views from 
great heights overlooking a large 
expanse of country, and on tops of 
mountains. 

When photographing objects 
close at hand, such as architectural 
details, the face of a statue, etc., 
remember that the life and soul of 
any detail picture are in the trans¬ 
parency of its shadows—and am¬ 
plify the exposure accordingly. 

In a photographic print, a shad¬ 
ow is “transparent” when details can 
easily be seen in it; when it is merely 
darker than the lighted parts of the 
picture, but is not black. A shadow 
is “opaque” when it is a mere dark or 

65 


THE FIRST BOOK 


black patch. Most shadows in nature 
are transparent. Most shadows in 
good photographs, therefore, should 
be transparent. A photograph which 
has an opaque shadow where nature 
provided a transparent one, is either 
under exposed or over printed, usu¬ 
ally the former. 

The closer one is to the object 
photographed, the longer the ex¬ 
posure must be (other things being 
equal). Therefore, if a snapshot at 
an object would make a good picture 
at a distance of twenty-five feet or 
more, and you get within five or six 
feet in order to make a picture show¬ 
ing the detail of a part of it, use a 
tripod, and a quick “bulb” exposure 

66 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

—perhaps a quarter or a third of a 
second. 

In landscape work, remember 
that greens and reds and browns 
“take” dark, and that blues and light- 
greys and shiny things—like water 
with light reflected from it, “ take ” 
white or light, and govern your ex¬ 
posures accordingly. In making 
pictures of people—which are 
much better made in the shade than 

in the sun—lengthen the exposure 
not only because of the decrease of 
light, but to avoid a “contrasty” nega¬ 
tive which will make eyes seem like 
black holes in a chalky white face, 
the whole a travesty on humanity. 


67 



THE FIRST BOOK 


Indoor Portraits 

/ 

They really have no business 
of mention in a primer, for their 
successful making belongs to quite 
an advanced stage of the work. 
But a hint or two may perhaps 
properly be given. Get the sitter 
close to a window into which the 
sun does not shine. Hang a sheet 
over a clothes-horse or screen or 
chair-hack, on the side of the sitter 
away from the window, so that light 
from the window is reflected back 
from this screen to the shadow side 
of the face. Set the camera on a 
tripod and try a two and, again, a 
four seconds exposure with lens at 
U. S. 4 or F/8—four times as long 

68 






The result of under exposure—a mere black-and- 
white impression, lacking all detail in the shadows 



Over exposure, a common error in distant, open 
views, gives a flat, dull picture, with lack of contrast 




OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

with the fixed focus Kodak or 
Brownie which has a lens of U. S. 
16 only. If the result is too chalky 
as to face and dark as to shadows, 
move the screen nearer the window 
and the sitter and hang the open 
window with cheesecloth to soften 
the harsh light and increase the ex¬ 
posure by half. This is most ele¬ 
mentary, but, as stated above, real 
* portrait work indoors is certainly 
no fit topic for a beginner’s primer. 

Distortion 

With the best intentions in the 
world, and, so far as that goes, with 
the best outfit in the world, you will 
at times make pictures which show 
distortion. Houses lean backwards, 


69 


THE FIRST BOOK 


statues are out of plumb, feet and 
hands in portraits grow to unseemly 
sizes. 

But these are mistakes which need 
not be committed twice. If you 
have a picture in which a house 
leans backwards, it is certain proof 
that your instrument was not level 
when you took the picture. In all 
small hand cameras you must hold 
the instrument level when taking 
any picture which includes “ right 
lines ” such as a building, a pole, 
or a statue. It makes less difference 
in a landscape—the same distortion 
is there, under such circumstances, 
but does not show so much because 
we don’t look with so much sus¬ 
picion on a tree which leans at an 

|70 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


angle as we do at a house which 
seems to want to claim kinship with 
Pisa’s tower. 

If the horizon line runs up or 
down hill, the camera, while it might 
have been level, was not plumb— 
that is, it was held tilted to one side 
or the other. The remedy—next 
time—is obvious. The remedy— 
this time—is to trim the finished 
print so that two edges and the 
horizon are parallel. 

Too large hands and feet in a 
portrait photograph mean that you 
were too close to your sitter and 
that his hands and feet, being much 
nearer the camera than his body, 
“ took,” therefore, just so much 
larger. For instance, making a por- 

71 




THE FIRST BOOK 


trait of a man sitting down, with 
his face six feet from the camera, 
brings his knees perhaps two feet 
nearer the camera—four feet away. 
They are at but two-thirds the dis¬ 
tance of the face. Let the man be 
twelve feet away and his feet are 
distant five-sixths the distance of 
his face—which is quite a different 
proportion! This is a very elemen¬ 
tary illustration—but this is an 
elementary book. Remember to 
take figures which nearly or quite fill 
the size of the plate or film from a 
side view and to have such poses with 
the sitters as nearly as possible in one 
plane, and you will avoid such dis¬ 
tortion. 


72 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


Capacity 

I suppose more beginners have 
failures from a lack of knowledge 
of the capabilities of their instru¬ 
ment and what may be expected of 
it, than from any other cause. 
Some try snapshots late in the 
evening, very early in the morning, 
in the house, under awnings, even 
at night, and blame everything but 
the right thing when they get no 
results for their pains. With such 
a Kodak as is used here as a text to 
preach upon, the box costing in the 
neighborhood of five dollars, and 
having a fixed focus lens with a 
working opening of F/16, never at¬ 
tempt to make snapshots before 

73 


i 


THE FIRST BOOK 


8:30 or after 4:30 in bright sun¬ 
light in summer, (these figures refer 
to “true time,” not “daylight saving” 
time), and not before 10 or after 3 in 
winter. To this rule, also, there are 
exceptions, but they can be learned 
in time. 

Brightness of Light 

One of the hardest things the 
beginner has to learn is the differ¬ 
ence between the visual brightness 
of light, and its photographic 
brightness, or actinic value. Any¬ 
one can see that the light is brighter 
in the sunlight than in the shade of 
a tree, but few beginners realize that 
there is much difference between the 
light under a shady tree and in a 
house with windows open. Yet the 

74 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


light in any house, even a bright 
one, is almost invariably at least a 
hundred and often several hundred 
times slower, photographically, than 
the light under a shady tree out¬ 
doors. 

In the same way, it is difficult 
for the beginner to understand why 
he should wait until 8:30 in the 
morning in summer before attempt¬ 
ing snapshots. When the sun 
comes up in a cloudless sky, it 
looks as bright as it does when it 
is several hours old. But the color 
of the light is really yellow and 
red, although it doesn’t seem so 
unless there are white clouds for 
the light to shine on, when we have 
yellow or red sunrises or—the same 

75 


THE FIRST BOOK 


tiling applies to the other end of 
the day—red or yellow sunsets. 

Now, red and yellow are two of 
the slowest colors to make any im¬ 
pression on the photographic film 
or plate. They require more time 
to make their impress, consequently, 
when the sunlight is mostly com¬ 
posed of red and yellow rays—to 
speak accurately, when the red and 
yellow rays of sunlight are the prin¬ 
cipal ones to reach the earth—it 
takes more time to make a picture, 
and so, generally speaking, snap¬ 
shots with our little fixed focus box 
and relatively slow lens are impos¬ 
sible. In winter time, in latitudes 
of the United States and England, 
at least, the sun is so much further 


76 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


south than in summer, and its rays 
strike the earth at so much more 
acute an angle and thus give so 
much larger a proportion of the 
red and yellow or non-actinic rays, 
that snapshotting has to be put off 
until later in the day to counteract 
the actinicly-impoverished condition 
of the light. 

Time Exposure 

But just because you cannot 
take snapshots early and late in 
the shade, is no reason why you 
cannot take photographs . Such 
pictures are made by what is called 
a time exposure; that is, light is 
allowed to reach the film through 
the lens during an appreciable in- 

77 


THE FIRST BOOK 


terval of time; a snapshot being an 
interval so small that no human 
sense can detect or measure its 
duration. The duration of snap¬ 
shot intervals can only be deter¬ 
mined experimentally by special 
scientific apparatus. 

Making a time exposure is, of 
course, a matter of judgment as to 
the value of the light at hand. 
There is absolutely no short cut to 
this knowledge that I know of, with 
the exception of the use of an ex¬ 
posure meter, a little device which 
measures the intensity of the light 
by the time of darkening of a piece 
of sensitive paper to a matched tint. 
I should strongly advise any tyro 
to get and use such a device. 

78 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

However, there are tentative sug¬ 
gestions which may be of some 
value. In making your first in¬ 
terior time exposure, pick out a 
bright room with two or more win¬ 
dows, and point the camera away 
from the windows, so that the win¬ 
dows are not in the view. Have 
them all wide open as to shutters 
and screens and roller shades. 
Have the camera on a table, chair 
or tripod support. It should not 
be necessary, but experience tells 
me that it is, to say, “Don't try to 
hold the camera in the hands for 
any hind of an exposure hut a snap¬ 
shot” Certain failure is the sure 
result. Set the shutter for a time 
exposure, according to the directions 

79 


THE FIRST BOOK 

which came with it. Time the ex¬ 
posure with a watch, and for a first 
experiment try one minute with the 
lens stopped to F/ 16 . The result 
will tell you whether you gave it 
too much or too little time; if too 
little, the resulting negative will 
have a great deal of clear glass or 
film showing, with no detail in the 
clear parts; if too much, which is 
hardly likely to happen, the whole 
negative will be very black and 
dense. 

Time exposures outdoors are an¬ 
other story—with the same stop 
that you use for snapshots, they 
will range from a quarter of a sec¬ 
ond, which is about as fast as you 
can open and dose the shutter, to 

80 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


two or three seconds, which is about 
as long as time exposures are usu¬ 
ally made outdoors under ordinary 
circumstances. 

I feel as if I ought to offer an 
apology for not being more decided 
and saying dogmatically, “ Do this,” 
and “ Don’t do that,” but whenever 
I decide to say that thus-and-so is 
so, some incident in my experience 
rises and confronts me and calls me 
a liar! There are exceptions to al¬ 
most every rule in photography or 
out of it, and I trust I will have 
my readers’ indulgence for remem¬ 
bering them when you, my readers, 
get so far in the work that you run 
across them. Of course, there are 
times outdoors when time exposures 

81 


THE FIRST BOOK 


7nay run into minutes; the statement 
I made just now applies only to 
ordinary everyday work and not to 
exceptional conditions, such as 
photograph}^ by moonlight, or what 
is known as “ pinhole ” photogra¬ 
phy, etc. 

Comparisons 

Obtain somehow, from some¬ 
one, one or more good negatives. 
(A “negative” is the odd name by 
which we know a developed-plate or 
film; see page 77). Get them from 
some amateur friend who knows the 
ropes, get them from your dealer or 
from the local professional. By hav¬ 
ing these on hand, you will learn how 
to judge your own results. If you 


82 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

haven’t them, and have access to no 
one to whom you can go for advice, 
how are you going to tell when you 
have and when you haven’t succeeded, 
as you should succeed? 
going to tell when you have and 
when you haven’t succeeded, as you 
should succeed? 

I should also suggest having your 
first attempts developed by some¬ 
one else—it is enough to do to learn 
to handle the camera and to judge 
light and exposures as a starter; 
when experience to some small de¬ 
gree is back of you, is time enough to 
start on the subject of development 
for yourself. However, the time 
need not be long to enter the path 
to the pleasant labyrinth of develop¬ 
ment. 


83 



THE FIRST BOOK 


DEVELOPMENT 

When the time comes when you 
want to do your own developing, 
the best part of wisdom is to go 
slowly, and get a few things at a 
time, rather than a “ complete out¬ 
fit ” either as listed in some cata¬ 
logue, or made up for you by some 
over-eager salesman. To develop 
a roll of films you need the follow¬ 
ing and only the following: one fi l m 
tank, one set of tank development 
powders, one tray, one box of acid 
fixing bath. It is folly to get more 
or indulge in the purchase of a 
wholfe host of chemicals of which 


84 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


you don’t know the use, when you 
don’t even know whether or not you 
are going to want to do your own 
developing after all! 

It is time enough to stock up with 
scales, with which to weigh out your 
own chemicals, and those chemicals 
in pound cans, and get red lights 
and multitudinous trays and fixing- 
boxes, and clips and pins and rods 
and graduates and bottles and all 
the beloved paraphernalia of the 
darkroom, when you have learned a 
little of what they are for and 
whether you want to go so deeply 
into the gentle art of picture-mak¬ 
ing or whether you are content to 
let some one else “ do the rest.” In 
all probability, once you have seen 

85 


THE FIRST BOOK 

a film come out of the tank, watched 
the milkiness disappear in the fixing 
tray and had the pleasure of exam¬ 
ining your own work fresh from the 
baths, you will never again be con¬ 
tent to pay someone else to have 
that pleasure for you. Photography 
is a most fascinating art and lays 
strong hands on those with whom 
it once comes closely in contact. 
But you will enjoy it the more if 
you learn as you go, and do not 
try to grab all its pleasures at once 
and so surfeit yourself before you 
have fairly tasted its delights. 

Having learned something of 
your camera and something of ex¬ 
posure, there remains yet the pro¬ 
cess of development itself to be un- 

86 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

raveled before we know even the 
elements of negative making; and 
even then we are not through—next 
comes the making of a finished 
print, or picture proper. But 
printing mediums are many and 
various; development of the nega¬ 
tive is a standard process, albeit con¬ 
ducted in several differing ways and 
with different chemicals. But the 
chemicals used are, to you, unim¬ 
portant factors—any good devel¬ 
oper will give good results if prop¬ 
erly used. 

Theory of Development 

What is this process of de¬ 
velopment? 

When the sensitive film on the 

87 


THE FIRST BOOK 


support in the camera—celluloid in 
the case of roll or flat film and 
glass when plates are used—is sub¬ 
jected to the action of light, the 
chemical constitution of the sensi¬ 
tive salts is changed. This change 
is invisible to the eye, but so affects 
the chemicals that they become sen¬ 
sitive in a new direction, to the as¬ 
saults of another chemical, called a 
developer or reducer. This agent 
acts upon the sensitive salts and re- 

i 

duces them, so that they are 
changed in form. What is left, af¬ 
ter the action of the developer, is 
a dark deposit of metallic silver, 
and this deposit is in proportion to 
the amount of light action obtained 
when the exposure was made, and 

88 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


this, in turn, is proportional to the 
original subject and the light which 
was reflected from its various parts 
to and through the lens and, in the 
form of the image, onto the film or 

plate. Thus, the dark deposits form 
a picture, but a picture reversed— 

dark where the original was light, and 
light or transparent film where the 
original was dark. For the amount 
of reduction, being governed by 
light action, is greatest where there 
was most light and so the “ high 
lights ” of the subject are the dark¬ 
est portions of the resulting film— 
the shadows are the least dark. It 
is for this reason that the developed 
film is called the “ negative,” in dis¬ 
tinction to the “ positive ” or fin¬ 
ished picture. 


89 


THE FIRST BOOK 


Development 

To develop an exposed plate or 
film, it is necessary to immerse it 
in a solution of the developing 
agent. As most of these agents 
oxidize very rapidly when exposed 
to the air in the form of a solution, 
another chemical, called a preserva¬ 
tive, must be added to take up the 
oxygen which would otherwise af¬ 
fect the developing reagent. This 
is usually sulphite of soda. Still 
another chemical is usually added, 
called an accelerator, the function 
of which is to increase the rapidity 
of the action of the developer. 


90 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


Red Light 

Obviously, the sensitive sur¬ 
face with the invisible change made 
in it by light is still a sensitive sur¬ 
face, so the process of development 
must be carried on in the dark. As 
this is more or less trouble, and as 
the sensitive surface is rather in¬ 
sensitive to red light, a dim red 
radiance is usually used to illumi¬ 
nate the work. I am speaking now 
of the old way of developing, which 
is sometimes called tentative de¬ 
velopment. 

Tanks 

The new way, or tank develop¬ 
ment, does not require any red 

91 


THE FIRST BOOK 


light in the case of roll films, or any 
darkroom either, and for plates only 
needs those two long enough to get 
the plate in a tank and under cover. 
The rest of the operation can be 
conducted in daylight. When you 
add to these advantages the facts 
that tank development gives better 
results than the old way, is easier, 
cheaper, quicker and requires no 
knowledge whatever, or experience 
either—when it is thoroughly under¬ 
stood that you, a beginner, can get 
just as good results with a tank as 
I can, with more than twenty-five 
years of photography behind me as a 
guide, there would seem to be no 
room for argument as to the ad¬ 
visability of using a tank. But new 

92 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

ideas, even good ones, have to fight 
their way against old and established 
notions. You have only to think of 
the telegraph, the steam car, or—in 
photography—the dry plate, for ex¬ 
amples. Many people, possibly 
most people who have been doing 
photographic work more than ten 
years, are believers in the older sys¬ 
tem, but as fast as the new one 
is demonstrated to them, they drop 
the old idea and take up the new. 

Now there is an exception to the 
advantages of tank development, 
and it is found in art work. When 
a man is an artist and uses pho¬ 
tography as a tool to paint pictures 
with, he is beyond all rules of pho¬ 
tographic procedure. But he must 

93 


THE FIRST BOOK 

first know the rules in order to 
understand breaking them. Before 
he can produce a negative which is, 
photographically considered, poor, 
but which will give him just the ef¬ 
fect he wants, he must know how to 
get a technically good negative. The 
tank gives good negatives from the 
technical standpoint, the very best 
which can be made from the given 
exposure. As you are a beginner, 
you for whom this primer is written, 
you have nothing to do with the ex¬ 
ception except to note it. When 
you are a good photographer and 
want to make artistic pictures, you 
can discard the tank occasionally 

and mix your developer to strange, 

* 

weird formulae of your own and 

94 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


produce under- or over-developed 
negatives for special effects to your 
heart’s content. But be it noted 
that more and more are the modi¬ 
fications which artists make in pho¬ 
tography being done not upon the 
negative but in and upon the print. 

Your little film camera will yield 
you the best results of the kind you 
and I want—good, clear, readable 
photographs, that look like their 
subjects, and that represent day¬ 
light scenes and not midnight or 
moonlight—if you develop its films 
in a tank. These tanks, made ex¬ 
pressly for the development of roll 
film, are marvels of simplicity and 
compactness, are not expensive, and 
are worth ten times their cost in the 

95 



THE FIRST BOOK 


saving of time, trouble, expense of 
chemicals and in the films which 
they save, which would, hand-de¬ 
veloped, more than likely be a loss. 
I practice what I preach. I have 
tanks galore, and I persuade my 
friends to buy them. At a country 
home, recently, a friend showed me 
some commercially developed nega¬ 
tives. 

“ What is the matter with these? ” 
he asked me. 

It would have been easier to have 
told him what wasn’t the matter, 
although “ fogged to death and 
’way over developed ” would have 
half answered the question. I de¬ 
veloped by hand a roll of film for 
him, to show the difference. 


96 







Pictures in the woods are frequently under exposed 
because the subject seems better lighted than it 
really is. To get detail in the shadows, as here, a 
tripod and time exposure are essential 











OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


“ Now,” I said, “ as much better 
as mine are than yours, so much 
better would another roll be than 
mine, if done in a tank.” 

“ Then,” he said, “ I want a tank 
and I want it quick!” And 
straightway we went and bought 
one. And his first films, developed 
in it, were just as good as any films 
could be. The makers say “ the ex¬ 
perience is in the tank ”—and truth¬ 
fully so; all you have to do is to 
put in the chemicals and film! 


97 



> > ) 


THE FIRST BOOK 


Tajik Theory 

The idea of tank development 
is that a standard solution at a 
standard temperature will give uni¬ 
form results in a standard time. I 
don’t want to get too technical, nor 
use terms which are unfamiliar, any 
more than I can help. But the 
number of gradations in a negative 
—the steps between each tone—are 
determined by the exposure—the 
steepness of these steps, or the de¬ 
gree and amount of contrast be¬ 
tween light and dark, is determined 
by the time of development. This 
being so, it follows that the only 
control over results, as regards their 
finished appearance, is by altering 

98 




OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

the steepness of the scale of the 
picture, increasing or decreasing 
either the time of development, the 
temperature, or the dilution, all of 
which are different ways of altering 
the time action of a certain quantity 
of reducer upon the film. This idea 
reduced development to an automa¬ 
tic process, and that automatic proc¬ 
ess is tank development. 

Tank Practice 

Now, while the process is auto¬ 
matic, that does not mean that it 
does not require some care. It is 
absolutely essential that the few 
requirements be exactly satisfied. 
It is necessary, much more so than 
in tentative development, to use 

99 


THE FIRST BOOK 


pure chemicals, since the process is 
a quiet one and the chemicals in 
solution are not rocked over the 
face of the plate, as in hand develop¬ 
ment. It is even more essential 
that the temperature be ascertained 
and the time of development pro¬ 
portioned to this temperature. The 
best temperature is 65 degrees Fah¬ 
renheit for a pyro developer and 
there is no developer, advertisements 
to the contrary notwithstanding, 
which is superior to pyro for tank 
use. A first-class formula for 
Kodak roll film is as follows: 

Water, 48 ounces. 

Dissolve in this 90 grains sulphite 
of soda, 60 grains carbonate of soda, 
and 30 grains pyro. 

100 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


The sodas are two of the desic¬ 
cated or anhydrous variety—in other 
words, not the crystallized form. 
Crystallized chemicals contain equal 
parts of water and the chemical, 
so that if only crystallized chemicals 
are at hand, double these weights 
should be used. The pyro (short 
for pyrogallic acid) comes in a very 
fine crystal form, looking more like 
a fine white fuzz than anything else. 
Both pyro and the sodas are cheap¬ 
est when bought by the pound, and 
the sodas, if bought in quantity, 
should never be purchased in any 
other form than in original pound 
packages put up by chemists for 
photographic use. With all due 
respect for druggists, the quality of 

101 



THE FIRST BOOK 


soda—particularly the sulphite— 
they sell often leaves much to be 
desired, and many a photographic 
failure can be traced to the use 
of such chemicals. The makers of 
tanks usually put up packages of 
chemicals all weighed out and ready 
to mix by the addition of water, and 
as it is to their interest to have you 
get good results, you can rely on 
their chemicals being pure and 
fresh. 

While tank development is the 
best, either for beginner or advanced 
student, there is an unquestionable 
fascination about hand or tray de¬ 
velopment which it is a pity altogeth¬ 
er to lose. Moreover, he is the better 
student who learns all that there is 


102 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

to learn, even if part of his knowl¬ 
edge is not strictly necessary to his 
results. 

So it might seem wise to develop 
one or two rolls of film by hand even 
though the tank is to be the method 
usually employed. 

It is not necessary to get a special 
red lamp; a yellowish paper, called 
post office paper (the high gods know 
why!) can be obtained at any photo¬ 
graphic kipply store. Half a dozen 
thicknesses of this tied around a small 
electric bulb will give a deep red radi¬ 
ance, which is fairly non-actinic— 
good enough for the experiment. 

Anything will do for a developing 
dish—wash basin or small glass bowl. 
Mix the developer as if for tank de- 

103 



THE FIRST BOOK 


velopment, but use only one-fourth 
as much water, which will cut the time 
of development in four. 

Unroll the film in the dim red radi¬ 
ance, having the developer and fixing 
bath and a rinsing bath handy, pass 
the film (after separating from the 
protecting paper) through the rinse 
water to get it thoroughly wet, and 
then pull it back and forth, back and 
forth through the developer, holding 
it by the extreme ends and “see-saw- 
ing” it so that each part in turn is 
subjected to the action of the solu¬ 
tion. The film will begin to show the 
effects in a few seconds, the negatives 
get clearer and clearer and then begin 
to darken. 

Now is the time the beginner wants 

104 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

to stop development. But now is not 
the time he should. The development 
should continue until the picture is 
easily visible from the back of the 
film, and until, held against the red 
light, it is fairly dense and thick. 
Then, and not until then, should the 

film be run once or twice through the 
rinse water and finally plunged into 

the fixing bath. After a moment in 
the fixing bath, the full light may be 
turned on. 

The experiment is advised because 
of its beauty and interest, and if the 
makeshift red light is used a sufficient 
distance from the developing opera¬ 
tion, it should work out as well as 
with an expensive “safelight.” 


105 


THE FIRST BOOK 


Fixing 

After the film is developed, 
whether by tank or by hand, it 
must be “ fixed ” and washed. Fix¬ 
ing a plate means submitting it 
to the action of a chemical which 
will dissolve from the film those 
chemicals not used in producing the 
image. The chemical universally used 
is hyposulphite of soda, obtainable for 
from eight to ten cents a pound. 
To this are added a little sulphite 
of soda, some acid and some alum. 
Plain hypo, in the proportion of 
one ounce to four of water, is a 
fixing bath and will do the work all 
right in cold weather, but it must 


106 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


be mixed fresh for use, and in v 
warm weather the film will get soft 
under its action. To prevent this, 
and to keep the solution clear and 
so it can be used over and over, 
the acid alum bath is used, for which 
the formula is given here: 

Water .32 ozs. 

Hyposulphite of soda.... 8 ozs. 

Dissolve completely. Then add to 

Water.2^ ozs. 

Anhydrous Sulphite of 

Soda. oz. 

Acetic acid (28%) .1% ozs. 

Pure powdered alum... ^2 oz * 

(One-half ounce of citric acid may 
be substituted for the acetic). 

When this solution is complete, stir 
into the first one made. 


107 






THE FIRST BOOK 

In this bath the film should be 
put as soon as it comes from the 
tank, after a thorough rinsing, and 
left until all the milky color (which 
is the unreduced silver in the emul¬ 
sion) has disappeared, and then left 
for ten minutes longer. The addi¬ 
tional ten minutes is in order that 
by-products of fixation may be dis¬ 
solved out and to allow full time 
for the alum to act upon the gela¬ 
tine of the emulsion and harden it 
sufficiently to stand the after-wash¬ 
ing. After fixation the film should 
be washed for an hour in running 
water or twelve changes of water of 
five minutes each, when it is to be 
carefully hung up to dry and the 
superfluous water wiped gently off 

108 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


with, say, a tuft of absorbent cotton. 
When dry, it is ready for printing. 

Judging Negatives 

But before proceeding with 
printing, it will be wise to devote 
a little attention to these negatives 
you have made, and see if, in any 
way, you can determine whether 
your work has been good or poor. 
It might seem more logical first to 
make prints from the negatives and 
judge then of the quality of your 
w r ork. But in such a case, suppos¬ 
ing the print is poor, how can you, 
a tyro, tell whether the poorness is 
the result of a mistake in printing, 
or occurred in the making of the 
negative? 


109 


THE FIRST BOOK 


A Good Negative 

Wordy duels have been fought 
over the definition of “a good nega¬ 
tive.” Inasmuch as most photog¬ 
raphers are a law unto themselves, 
there is perhaps no hard and fast 
rule to go by, and by which one 
may say, “ This is a good—nay, the 
best possible, negative.” But for 
our purposes here, a good negative 
is one which will yield easily a truth¬ 
ful and lifelike print, which re¬ 
quires no special manipulation in 
printing and from which similar 
prints can be made at any time. 


110 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

Tests 


When the dry negative is 
placed face down on a piece of 
white paper, it will, if properly 
exposed and properly developed, 
show a little of that white paper 
through its more transparent por¬ 
tions. When the negative is held 
against a good strong light, such 
as a window, its densest portions, 
or “ highest high lights,” will show 
detail, and its “ deepest shadows ” 
or most transparent portions, will 
also show some detail. If these con¬ 
ditions do not obtain, it is not so 
good a negative as it might be. 
Thus, if the high lights are mere 
blocks of blackness, and if at the 


111 


THE FIRST BOOK 


same time the shadows or clear parts 
are entirely clear and free from 
detail, it indicates under exposure — 
not enough time given when the 
picture was made. There was 
enough time given for the high¬ 
lights, but not for the shadows. If, 
on the contrary, the negative shows 
but little contrast and is thick and 
dense, the shadows differing but lit¬ 
tle from the high lights in thickness, 
then it was over exposed; had too 
much time when exposed. 

If the shadows show strongly 
marked detail and the high lights 
are blocked up and opaque, too 
much development is indicated, and 
if there is detail visible everywhere, 

but the whole negative is thin and 

112 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

weak, then the trouble has been in¬ 
sufficient development. 

If you use a tank according to 
directions, the development will be 
properly taken care of. Ergo, 
faults in the negative will then be 
entirely ones of exposure, and sim¬ 
plified for you in the recognition 
by just so much. 

While there are wavs of correct- 
ing the results of improper ex¬ 
posures, such as reduction of nega¬ 
tives too thick, and intensification of 
those too thin, retouching, local re¬ 
duction and intensification, etc., 
they must be left for the more ad¬ 
vanced student and deserve no more 
than passing mention here. But 
there is one thing even the be- 


113 


THE FIRST BOOK 
ginner may do, in partial compensa¬ 
tion Tor errors of exposure, and that 
is accomplished by the proper choice 
of paper on which the results are 
to be printed, as is explained in the 
next chapter. 


114 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


PRINTING 

The whole end and aim of all that 
goes before—the exposure, the de¬ 
velopment, the fixing, washing and 
drying of the negative, is the ulti¬ 
mate print—the picture on paper 
which can be put in a book, sent 
through the mail as a postal card, 
or framed and hung on the wall. 

Methods 

There are many printing 
methods and mediums, almost as 
many as there are subjects to photo¬ 
graph. The plain road of photo¬ 
graphic travtl which, though one 

115 


THE FIRST BOOK 


may ride with a simple Kodak or 
travel with an expensive and com¬ 
plicated speed-work camera, is still 
the same in its essentials of nega¬ 
tive making, here divides in a hun¬ 
dred by-paths. One can print by 
sunlight, by gas-light, by electric 
light or by burning magnesium rib¬ 
bon. One can print in black or 
brown, in blue or grey, in red or 
in green. One can print on shiny 
surfaces and soft matte papers; one 
can get paper which is stiff and 
thick, or thin and flimsy, which is 
smooth and velvety, or rough and 
hairy; and each kind of paper and 
each process of printing produces 
different results, even if from the 
same negative. 


116 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

But for primer purposes the sim¬ 
plest of papers alone will be spoken 
of, and both from their ease of 
manipulation and quickness of re¬ 
sults, the story here will be told only 
of developing paper, save for a 
mention of the blue print. Blue 
printing paper is undoubtedly the 
simplest of all papers, since it needs 
only to be exposed beneath the 
negative to the action of sunlight, 
and then washed in running water 
to produce a picture. But the blue 
print, while pretty enough as a 
novelty, and satisfactory for sea 
scenes, is hardly the sort of paper 
one wants to use to preserve results, 
and of the black-and-white papers, 
those known as developing papers, 

117 


THE FIRST BOOK" 


are the simplest, easiest and, gen¬ 
erally speaking, the most inexpen¬ 
sive of all the printing mediums. 
Platinum is beautiful, expensive and 
a matter for skill; carbon is inexpen¬ 
sive but difficult; the so-called plain 
papers, made at home, all require 
knowledge; gum is either transcend¬ 
ency beautiful or a smudge, and 
needs considerable “ know-how ” to 
manipulate. The developing or so- 
called gas-light papers are the thing, 
above all others, for the beginner, 
and so will be considered here. 

Gas-light Papers 

There are many such papers— 
but the best-known and most used are 
undoubtedly Velox and Cyco, and 

1X8 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


as the methods which mean success 
with these are those all the others em¬ 
ploy, with some slight modifications, 
let us hang the tale to them. 

The principle of the printing of 
a gas-light paper is not unlike that 
of the making of a negative. The 
sensitive paper, which is yet not 
nearly so sensitive to light as a plate 
or film, is placed, sensitive side 
against the film side of the negative, 
in a little frame called a printing- 
frame, in which the two are pressed 
closely into contact. If the nega¬ 
tive is of film, a piece of glass is 
first put in the frame to hold the 
film flat. 


119 


THE FIRST BOOK 


The frame is then exposed to a 
source of light, such as a gas-light, 
at a distance of about a foot, for a 
short time—from ten seconds to a 
minute. The paper is then removed 
from the frame and slid gently but 
quickly into a tray containing a 
solution. This is nothing more nor 
less than a developer which develops 
the image on the paper in the same 
way that the developer in the tank 
developed the image on the nega¬ 
tive. But here the result is a 
positive. 

Principles 

Why, is easily seen. Suppose 
the negative is a picture of a man, 
having a black necktie and a white 

120 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

shirt. In the negative, the white 
shirt appears black, because the 
light from the white shirt so af¬ 
fected the chemicals in the sensitive 
film that, under the action of the 
developer they turned black. The 
black necktie, in the negative, is 
clear film, transparent, because no 
light, or very little, was reflected 
from the necktie, and so there was 
little light-affected salts of silver 
in the sensitive film to be reduced 
by the developer. 

Now, however, conditions are re¬ 
versed. The black image of the 
shirt in the negative, prevents the 
gas-light from affecting the sensi¬ 
tive chemicals in the paper; the 
transparent image of the necktie 

121 


THE FIRST BOOK 


allows the gas-light to affect those 
chemicals. So when the paper is 
developed, the necktie comes up 
black , as it was in nature; the shirt 
front stays white , and the result is 
a positive, or picture with light and 
shade as it was in nature. 

Development, which is complete 
in a few seconds, is followed im¬ 
mediately by rinsing and then by 
fixation, on the same principle that 
a negative must be fixed after de¬ 
velopment. You cannot, however, 
see any milkiness disappearing in 
the fixing of a developing-paper 
print—you must leave it for ten 
minutes in a fresh bath, to be sure 
it is fixed. The print is then 
waste*!, as the negative was washed, 

122 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


for an hour in running water 
or in twelve changes of water 
of five minutes each, and the proc¬ 
ess is complete. The picture is then 
placed face down on a blotter or 
cloth to dry and, when dry, is sub¬ 
ject to trimming, mounting or 
framing, a finished product. 

There is no process of photog¬ 
raphy more fascinating than the 
making of the print. It brings be¬ 
fore you both the magic of chem¬ 
istry, of optics, and the pleasures 
of your own work thus coming to 
full fruition before your eyes. There 
is no part of photography which is 
more simple, either, but lest the 
law of compensation prove itself 
wrong, there is no place where so 

123 


THE FIRST BOOK 


many little missteps can be made 
with so great an ease! 

Cautions 

Although the sensitive paper is 
much less sensitive to light than the 
sensitive film or plate, it is not to 
be exposed ruthlessly to the action 

of direct fight. It should be han¬ 
dled only in the shade of a screen 

or one’s own body in a room in 
which there is but the one source of 
light—the printing fight. It must 
be correctly exposed, within rather 
narrow limits, otherwise the result¬ 
ing print will be either very dark 
and black, of a very poor color, or 
else weak and flat. It must be put 
quickly into fresh developer which 

124 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

must reach all parts of the sheet at 
about the same time, otherwise there 
will be streaks and stains. It must 
be developed fully; that is, until 
action has practically ceased, or it 
will either be gray and weak or have 
an ugly tone of a brownish green 
tinge. It must be quickly and thor¬ 
oughly rinsed, and as quickly im¬ 
mersed in the “ hypo ” or fixing 
bath, which should be an acid fixing 
bath, containing alum, according to 
the formula which comes with the 
paper. Acid fixing baths, ready for 
use, can be bought by the pound, 
needing only water to mix them. 
Finally, it must be stirred up or 
rocked during the first few seconds 
of fixing, or it may spot or stain, 

125 


THE FIRST BOOK 

and must be well washed if it is to 
be permanent. Nothing here of any 
difficulty, yet omission of any of 
these simple precautions means fail¬ 
ure. 

V arieties 

Velox, and all the other gas¬ 
light papers, come in many surfaces 
and in at least two grades or kinds 
—these grades are not of quality 
but of speed. The fast or Special 
Velox papers are for normal or con¬ 
trasty negatives; the slow or Regu¬ 
lar papers are for thin, flat, weak 
negatives. The slow papers require 
from two to four times the exposure 
that the fast papers need. They 
produce greater contrast—heavier 

126 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

blacks and more distinct whites. 
The Special papers require shorter 
exposure, and produce softer blacks, 
whites and grays. For all good 
negatives, use the Special papers— 
for thin, weak, flat ones, use the 
Regular grades. 

Surfaces 

The surfaces are many—glossy, 
velvet, carbon, matte, smooth, rough. 
One can pick his surface as suits 
him best: for great detail, glossy; 
for plucky, brilliant pictures, velvet; 
for soft, pictorial work, carbon; for 
portraits, either matte or smooth; 
and for special effects, rough papers. 
Velox is also made in a green 
variety which develops in the color 

127 


THE FIRST BOOK 


of the finished prints, and all gas¬ 
light prints can be made into brown 
ones later on—but that process 
scarcely belongs in this book. 

Test Prints 

Do not be discouraged if, from 
your first dozen sheets of paper, 
you do not produce a dozen good 
prints. And remember this: if you 
fail, the fault is most probably in 
your exposure. So it is suggested 
that four sheets be cut in quarters, 
and that with these quarters you 
start a series of exposures behind 
the center of your negative, giving 
each quarter five seconds more than 
the last one, and beginning with five 
seconds for the first. Develop these 

128 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 


as you make them, leaving them in 
the developer for thirty seconds at 
least. You will soon know what 
is the proper exposure for your 
negative. But be careful to make 
all these test exposures at the same 
distance from the light. The 
physicist tells us that the intensity 
of light varies as the square of the 
distance, which means, when trans¬ 
lated into the vernacular, that if it 
takes ten seconds to make a print 
at six inches’ distance from a gas 
jet, it will require not twenty, but 
forty, seconds to make as good a 
print at twelve inches from the same 
gas jet. 

Failures . 

There are one thousand and one 
129 


THE FIRST BOOK 


reasons for failures. Making a pic¬ 
ture is a progressive operation, and 
one slip at any stage will more or 
less affect the finished result. Often 
that slip is not recognized until the 
last step has been taken, and then the 
tyro is frequently puzzled as to just 
where he has erred. 

In the hope that they will assist 
him in locating his trouble, some of 
the more common causes of the more 
common mistakes have been listed 
below. 

No Picture on Developed Film 
Shutter didn’t work, shutter 
wasn’t completely operated, hand or 
clothing over the lens when picture 
was attempted, picture was attempted 
in very dull light, diaphragm was set 

130 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

very small when it should have been 
large. 

Developed Film Is Solid Black 
Film was exposed to light be¬ 
tween taking from instrument and de¬ 
velopment, or prior to putting into 
camera. 

Developed Film Is Solid Black 
with Clear, Transparent Edges 
Film was exposed to light in the 
camera, probably by shutter being set 
to “time exposure” when operator 
thought it was set for “instantan¬ 
eous.” In this event, pressure on 
bulb, button or lever opened the shut¬ 
ter and it remained open, thus '‘fog¬ 
ging” the film. 

Developed Film Is Largely Clear, 
with no Details in Shadow Por¬ 
tions 


131 


THE FIRST BOOK 


Subject much under-exposed. 
Developed Film Is Flat, Grey, 
with no Contrast 
Subject much over-exposed. 

Developed Film Is Thick and 
Heavy, But with Details and 
Contrast 

Over-development. 

Developed Film Is Weak and 
Thin, But with Details in the 
Shadows 

Under development 
Developed Film Has a Black Bar, 
Smudge, Spot or Irregular 
Patch Upon It 

Local fog, caused always by ex¬ 
posure to light otherwise than 
through the lens. Sometimes a pin¬ 
hole in the bellows or a leaky joint in 

132 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

the camera is responsible. More often 
carelessness in loading, unloading, or 
development. 

Developed Film Has Clear Patches 
or Spots Upon It 

If developed in a film tank, 
caused by squeezing the film in the 
apron, or apron upside down in the 
changing box. Sometimes caused in 
hand development by dirty fingers 
touching surface of film, and oc¬ 
casionally by undissolved chemicals 
in the solution. 

Developed Film Shows Two Sim¬ 
ilar Pictures Overlapping Each 
Other 

Instrument not held steady— 
moved during exposure. 

133 


THE FIRST BOOK 


Developed Film Shoves Two Dis¬ 
similar Pictures 

Failure to wind film between ex¬ 
posures. 

Autographic Writing Appears on 
Edge of Wrong Film 
Failure to cut apart properly, 
or winding the film before writing. 
Houses or Straight-line Objects 
Appear to Lean 
Camera not held level, fore and 

aft. 

Horizon Line Runs Uphill or 
Houses Lean to Right or Left . 
Camera not held level right to 

left. 

In a Foreground Picture , Fore¬ 
ground is “Fuzzy” While Back¬ 
ground Is Clear and Sharp 

134 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

Misjudged distance, focusing 
scale mis-set. 

Moving Objects BlurredStation¬ 
ary Objects Clear 
Too long an exposure to ‘‘stop” 
motion. 

Developed Film Shows Long Paral¬ 
leled Lines Running Lengthwise 
“Cinching” the film by pulling 
on the paper and rolling it up tight 
after removal from camera, thus 
drawing minute particles of dust 
along the sensitive surface. 

White “Smoke” in Print Ascend¬ 
ing Straight from Objects 
Against the Sky, Such as Poles, 
Chimneys , Spires, etc . 

Known as “image drifting” and 
caused, in lengthy tank development 

135 


THE FIRST BOOK 

by too infrequent reversals of the 
tank. 

Developing Paper Print Stained 
Brown 

Too long development, develop¬ 
ing solution too warm, improper 
washing between development and 
fixation, too long a washing before 
fixation, not sufficient stirring up in 
fixing bath, fixing bath old and worn 
out, developer old and worn out. 
White Streaks and Patches on De¬ 
veloping Paper Print 
Old, weak developer, developer 
with chemicals not entirely dissolved, 
greasy finger marks on paper. 

Splotches and Irregular Marks on 
Developing Paper Print 
Frequently caused by not im- 

136 


OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

mersing print all at once, so that part 
of it gets a start in development be¬ 
fore the rest. 

Developing Paper Print Violent¬ 
ly Contrast with Deep Blacks 
and Pure Whites from a Good 
Negative 

Wrong variety of paper for the 
negative, print made too far from the 
light source, under-exposed print 
over-developed. 

Developing Paper Print Weak and 
Flat from a Good Negative 
Wrong variety of paper for 
negative, print made too close to the 
light source, over-exposed print 
under-developed. 

Print Fogged and Grey 

Paper has been exposed to light 
before printing, or is old. 

137 


THE FIRST BOOK 


IN CONCLUSION 

The surface of the subject has 
been scratched, and that is about 
all. Into the subjects of ortho- 
chromatic—true-color-value — work, 
the use of the ray screen, the focal 
plane shutter, speed work, the use 
and abuse of fine lenses, portraiture, 
different printing methods, telephoto 
work, the management of the Gra- 
flex and the Panoram, the Cirkut 
and portrait cameras, we have not 
gone at all. They must be left for 
more advanced workers, and more 
elaborate textbooks. 

But, however elementary this 

, 138 



OF PHOTOGRAPHY 

book may seem to you, after you 
have learned to manipulate your 
Kodak, I would say this—that he 
who has learned to use his instru¬ 
ment, his sensitive material, his tank 
and his gas-light paper, so that he 
can make a good negative and from 
it a good print, nine times out of 
ten, has learned all this little book 
has to teach and all that it is in¬ 
tended to teach. Plaving done so 
much, the photographic world is 
open to him, choose where he may 
to go. Having failed to master 
these elementary facts, and be his 
outfit and his library what it may, 
he is not and never can be a skillful 
and successful user of the magic 
black box. 


139 



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